Toyota has agreed to pay the driver and the surviving family members of a passenger killed in a 2007 crash involving a Camry. In one of the first recorded suits involving the high-profile incidents involving Toyota vehicles and “stuck” accelerators, the plaintiffs sued for injuries they alleged to have been caused by the car accelerating on its own and crashing.
The settlement was reached late in October, just one day following a $3 million jury verdict over the damages portion of the same case. The verdict came as the first court loss for Toyota in an unintended acceleration case, awarded by a jury in the state of Oklahoma. Jurors awarded $1.5 million each to the injured woman and to the surviving family of a female passenger who was killed.
The jury in Oklahoma also found Toyota liable of “reckless disregard” for the public’s safety. The court was then set to proceed in considering an additional punitive component to the payout, above and beyond the initial $3 million. Before the case could move forward, the plaintiffs’ lawyers announced they had received and accepted a settlement offer from Toyota for an undisclosed amount that would cover both the damages and put an end to any potential punitive payout ruling by the court.
After the settlement was announced, Toyota issued a public statement:
“While we strongly disagree with the verdict, we are satisfied that the parties reached a mutually acceptable agreement to settle this case. We will continue to defend our products vigorously at trial in other legal venues.”
Toyota has already agreed to pay $1.1 billion to settle a class-action suit by car owners whose resale value declined drastically as a result of the recall and negative publicity. Just over half of the settlement funds were applied toward installing a “brake override” system in the affected vehicles. However, that settlement does not cover any of the cases in which personal injury or death occurred. According to financial filings, the automaker still faces more than 700 civil claims involving unintended acceleration.
Toyota Recall Timeline
Toyota Motor Corporation issued a series of 3 separate, related product recalls spanning from the end of 2009 into early 2011. In general, the recalls involved accelerator pedal defects or conditions which caused the accelerator (gas pedal) to become stuck. As a result, cases of unintended acceleration were reported and presented a serious crash risk. In total, recall announcements affected a total of 2.3 million vehicles sold in the US.
- Recall 1: Nov 2009 – Initial stage of all-weather floor mat recall, mats trap/pin the gas pedal down
- Recall 2: Jan 2010 – Electronic accelerator assembly found to be faulty
- Recall 3: Feb 2011 – Second stage of floor mat-related recall, 2.17 million vehicles added to recall
References:
AutoBlog.com – Toyota sudden acceleration class action may cover 22 million owners
